Resource Library

Here you will find a collection of online resources produced by international organizations working on issues of internal displacement. These resources include guidelines, presentations, scholarly articles, datasets, and reports. We are constantly updating this library, so checkin frequently for updates.

DATABASES

BIC Project MonitoringProvider: Bank Information CenterMonitors high-risk and problematic projects financed by multilateral development banks. Database includes hard-to-obtain documents and case study analyses in all major world regions. Offers information on each project being monitored that includes: overview, major concerns, action taken, additional resources/documents/reports, and key contacts.

Global Database on the Guiding Principles of Internal DisplacementProvider: Brookings-Bern ProjectThe database is a project of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement and The Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University.

Legal Documents

Great Lakes Protocol on the Property Rights of Returning PersonsProvider: International Conference on the Great Lakes RegionProvides a legal basis for resolving disputes in displacement situations. Provides a framework for the protection of displaced peoples.

Delhi High Court RulingProvider: High Court of DelhiLocal Legal Document regarding the displaced

Guiding Principles on Displacement 1998Provider: UNHCRThe Guiding Principles are a non-binding declaration of principles that document the rights of IDPs. It draws on international human rights and humanitarian law.

Monitoring Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate ChangeProvider: IDMCThe reports two main aims are to estimate the impact of climate disaster-related displacement in 2008 and to propose a methodology for monitoring disaster-induced displacement.

Report on Security of Tenure and Housing RightsProvider: UNHCRThis report explores the connection between tenure insecurity and forced evictions/displacement. Rolnik argues that we are facing an international tenure insecurity crisis and criticizes the predominant approach to tenure amongst most countries: individual freehold ownership.

World Urban Forum III StatementProvider: Miloon Kothari 2006 Statement by Miloon Kothari on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living.

Unjust CompensationProvider: Center for the Sustainable Use of Natural and Social ResourcesThis report utilizes the HLRN Eviction Impact Assessment Tool to assess property damage and loss in Kandhamal India. The study attempts to enumerate the costs of the violence and categorizes the losses as 1) loss of possessions, 2) loss of livelihoods, and 3) loss of food and water sources, and makes a set of recommendations to the government of Odisha.

Under the Radar: Internally Displaced Persons in Non-Camp SettingsProvider: Brookings Institute This report documents the challenges facing IDPs who do not live in camps and are often out of the public eye. Non-camp IDPs live dispersed in communities in a wide range of living situations and make up the majority of the world’s IDP population.

Unheard Voices: The Human Rights Impact of Land Investment on Indigenous Communities in Gambella (Ethiopia) Provider: Oakland Institute Documents the human impacts of the “villagization program” in which small-scale farmers are displaced and forcibly relocated to make room for land consolidation by government intermediaries and private land investors.

Economic, Social, and Cultural RightsProvider: UNHCRThe report focuses on forced evictions and illustrates how the phenomena has continued since the Commission on Human Rights adopted Resolution 1993/77 that recognized force evictions as a gross violation of human rights.

Report on DamsProvider: World Commission 2000 Report on development-caused displacement.

Pushback: Local Power and Global RealignmentProvider: Rights and Resource InitiativeThis report takes stock of the current status of forest rights and tenure globally, assesses the key issues and events of 2010 that shape possibilities to improve local rights and livelihoods, and identifies key questions and challenges that the world will face in 2011.

Put a Number on ItProvider: Habitat International CoalitionQuantifying Costs, Loses, and Damages from the violation of housing and land rights. Global analysis based on HLRN data.

Women From Mining Affected Communities Speak OutProvider: International Women and Mining NetworkThis report features women who provide first-hand accounts of the destructive impacts of the extractive industries on their health, livelihoods, and communities.

Protecting Public Housing Tenants in Australia from Forced EvictionProvider: Justice Kevin BellContrasts international legal norms on the right to adequate housing with Australian legal practices.Report from 2012 regarding development-based displacement specifically.

Statutory Recognition of Customary Land Rights in AfricaProvider: FAO Legal OfficeThis study provides guidance on how best to recognize and protect the land rights of the rural poor. This publication investigates various over-arching issues related to the statutory recognition of customary land rights. Three case studies of land laws in Botswana, Tanzania and Mozambique are analysed extensively in content and implementation, concluding the with recommendations and practical considerations on how to write a land law that recognizes and formalizes customary land rights. It cautions lawmakers that even excellent laws may, in their implementation, fall prey to political manipulation and suggests various oversight and accountability mechanisms that may be established.

Housing, Land, and Property Issues and the Response to Displacement in LibyaProvider: UNHCRDocuments the issues facing IDPs forced from their homes by the 2011 uprising. These communities face tenure insecurity and a lack of services while also confronting violence when they try to return to their former neighborhoods.

Tools and Guides

Eviction Impact Assessment ToolProvider: HLRNThis tool calculates the material and non-material losses incurred by communities before, during, and after eviction. The tool can be applied to avoid evictions or to enable just rehabilitation or compensation. It accounts for the different impact of evictions on women, children, elderly and marginalized groups.

Human Rights and Democracy Assessment ToolProvider: OxfamThis tool guides the user through assessment, report compilation, case management and financial planning tools necessary for an assessment of human rights impact. It is designed for use by local communities, municipalities, civil society groups, unions and small businesses.

IOM Displacement Tracking MatrixProvider: IOMThe matrix is a tool to capture, process and disseminate complex information about the impact of a crisis, including the migration, vulnerabilities and needs of affected populations. It has been used in conflict and climate-related disasters in 16 countries.

Community Guide to the ABD Involuntary Resettlement SafeguardsProvider: Bridges Across Borders The guide serves as a popular education resource for communities facing displacement, particularly due to Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects. The ADB updated its Involuntary Resettlement Safeguard Policy in 2009. The key aims of this policy are to avoid and minimize displacement and to ensure that no one is made worse off as a result of a project funded by the ADB.

Forced Evictions Assessment Questionnaire Provider: UN-OHCHRThe “Forced Evictions Assessment Questionnaire” is intended to serve as a guidance tool for addressing situations of forced evictions by: a) contextualizing events; b) assessing the existence and the type of human rights violations that are foreseen or on-going; c) offering practical advice to all parties; and d) helping to monitor and report on the situation.

Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced PersonsProvider: Global Protection ClusterThis extensive handbook offers information on national and international legal frameworks for IDP protections. Revelant sections include shelter, livelihoods, land and property among others. It offers guidance of methodology, monitoring, advocacy, legal assistance, and information dissemination.

IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced PersonsProvider: Brookings-Bern Project Addresses durable solutions following conflict and natural disasters. It describes human rights-based principles that should guide the search for solutions and establishes the criteria that determine to what extent a durable solution has been achieved. The Framework also offers examples of indicators that, if properly adapted to the local context, can inform efforts to monitor progress towards durable solutions.

Implementing Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative for ImpactProvider: World BankThis handbook offers a range of best practices for stakeholders impacted or involved with extractive industries to better enforce transparency and monitor impact. It is designed to be a platform for general reform as well as a tool to address sector-specific governance.

National Instruments on Internal DisplacementProvider: Brookings-LSE Project This guide outlines a process for developing human-rights based laws, policies and strategies at the national level. While the primary focus is on the process of instrument development, the guide also compiles other legal materials and ideas for the content of the instruments.